Original content

English translation

Suzani — may God Most High have mercy on him. He was from Nasaf, and came to Bukhara to study. He fell in love with the apprentice of a needle-maker (suzangar), so he went to apprentice himself to that apprentice's master and attained complete mastery in that craft. Ribaldry dominated his nature, and on that account he composed a great deal of ribald nonsense. These two couplets are from a qasida in which he apologizes for them:

How long, because of the turning of the glass-colored heaven, shall we hurl stones at the glass house of piety?

To cast stones at glass is our own doing, ours alone, yet we lay the blame upon the glass-colored heaven.

And these several couplets are from another qasida with the same meaning:

For every evil you can name, I am a thousandfold more; no one knows me in this way as I know myself.

Openly I am bad, and in secret worse than bad; God knows it, and I too—both my open and my hidden self.

For a single minor sin the devil once was my guide; now, with a hundred grave sins, I am the devil's own guide.

And in yet another qasida of this style he says:

When you loose the arrow of your glance with coquetry and grace, make my poor heart the target, O warrior.

First I entered upon a game of the heart with you; when no heart remains, I will yield my body to a game of life.

Since no wound of yours, O friend, comes without a caress, strike me with a glance, that you may soothe me with a kiss.

You have a thousand lovers, and I am the thousand-and-first; you will not come to me until you are done with all the rest.

And in praise of Hamid al-Din the Mustawfi (accountant) Jawhari, who was among the learned men of Transoxiana, he composed a qasida of the 'mawquf' (broken-word) type, which they say was an invention of his own mind, and its opening is this:

Long life to the assembly of the Mustaw- fi, the fortune of Hamid al-Din al-Jaw-...

And let it not be hidden that if, in these words—of which a portion falls at the end of each hemistich—one so contrives that some of those fragments carry an independent meaning of their own suited to the intent, it is not devoid of a certain elegance, as in this fragment:

Yesterday a subtle-witted man from the ranks of the learned sent a fragment (qit'a) to me,

having split three or four of its words in two, so as to leave me helpless to reply.

I said in answer to him: O pri- de of God's creation, and judge of the nee-

ds of your companions, marked by vir- tue—greatly do I wish you well in prayer.

And this other quatrain:

O joy of the festival, since to my heart's desire my ene- mies have prevailed, and I am imprisoned in this house of grief, excu-

sed am I before the people of heart; if freedom is impri- soned, then as a festival-gift I long for it from you.